Tag Archives: sharing knowledge

Sometimes missing conferences can’t be helped. Such is the case with two conferences this year – the 2nd annual UK Knowledge Mobilisation Forum in Edinburgh, Scotland (13-14 April, 2015); and the 4th annual Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum taking place this year in Montreal, Quebec (14-15 May, 2015). Despite the advance planning and my previous attendance and support, I just cannot make it to these conferences this year due to my new job at the Faculty of Graduate Studies and work commitments involved.

Although I am disappointed that I can’t attend, I wholeheartedly encourage anyone interested in learning about enhancing knowledge exchange or knowledge mobilization practice – including graduate students thinking about putting current or future research into practice with impact – to register and go.

I’m sure someone else will be taking notes this year on the presentations and discussions of topics and outcomes of conversations for a report, and I look forward to reviewing what transpired. I’m also looking forward to following up with the amazing organizers Cathy Howe (UK KMb Forum) and Peter Levesque (Cdn KMb Forum), and I hope to be involved again at future events.

So why should you attend (again – or for the first time) either or both of these KMb Forums? The UK and the Canadian KMb Forums are a continuum of engaged relationships that have developed out of previous events, and an opportunity to develop new partnerships and valuable multi-sector and international connections.

Last year’s participants at the inaugural UK KMb Forum, included a mix of individuals from government policy, economics and evaluation, health research, youth & criminal justice, cancer research, social investment, women’s health, prison & corrections, freelance writing, science, non-governmental organizations, knowledge management, families & relationships, pharmacy, along with a variety of university scholars, administrators and community organizations – an incredibly successful session that brought together a wide range of knowledge exchange all in one place at one event! I heard someone say that they had not heard of any other multi-sector conference like this ever taking place in the UK, as events always seem to be so “specialized” and discipline-specific.

Extending on last year’s theme of Making Connections Matter, the 2015 UK KMb Forum focuses on four key areas of such connections:

Making Connections Matter: Knowledge Producers – helping researchers connect with those who help turn research into practice and impact beyond just publication

Making Connections Matter: Knowledge Brokers – providing opportunities for brokers to share their learning and lived experiences with other brokers and a wider audience

Making Connections Matter: People Who Use Knowledge – enabling practitioners from a wide range of sectors to meet academics, researchers and policy makers

Making Connections Matter: People Who Want To See Knowledge Used – giving public service, third sector and industry workers a chance to tell their own stories to influence future research

Last year’s Canadian KMb Forum was also another successful interdisciplinary conference with attendees from a mix of sectors including health, academia, children & youth services, workplace safety, environment, addictions & mental health, education, disability services, business, agriculture, and childhood development. The theme of the 2015 Canadian KMb Forum is Creativity as Practice: Mobilizing Diverse Ways of Thinking. This year’s Canadian KMb Forum will emphasize how creativity is a necessary part of knowledge mobilization practice in order to build capacity and improvement for knowledge mobilization by engaging with researchers, practitioners, knowledge brokers, community members and policy makers in more creative ways to enable partnerships and collaboration.

Even though I can’t attend either of these valuable knowledge mobilization forums this year – if you’re interested in effective ways of exchanging knowledge and helping to make research useful to society you can be part of one or both of these important events that bring people together locally, nationally and internationally to establish connections and form new relationships that I have found continue to influence my own work in very important ways.

How do you make someone else’s life a little bit better by sharing knowledge and being open to the knowledge of others?

How you exchange your knowledge is your message to the world. Make sure it’s for social benefit and not harm. Your knowledge becomes better when you make someone else’s life better by sharing knowledge and being open to the knowledge of others.

Where is your quiet place where you can stop the world for a minute and appreciate your own place in it – appreciate your knowledge contribution to it? All knowledge shared for social benefit makes the world a better place. Sometimes we need to step back into a quiet place to see our own knowledge contributions to this noisy planet.

Hatred is a waste of time and energy. Hatred is a choice. Sharing knowledge to make the world a better place is a beneficial use of time and energy. Sharing knowledge for social benefit is also a choice.

The success or failure of a society is determined by how knowledge is shared. Knowledge is not only measured in terms of how much or how little we have but in how it is shared. A person may have an abundance of knowledge; however, without sharing knowledge and an openness to the knowledg of others knowledge can still be considered “useless” no matter how much knowledge a person has.

Yet it’s also important to not worry about how much or how little knowledge we have. The very act of sharing knowledge combines knowledge and creates opportunities for the benefit of society and the general public. This is the importance of knowledge – the action of sharing it for social benefit.

You have a strength, a knowledge force, a knowledge energy that can be shared with others; and because there is only one of you in all of time, your knowledge is unique. You bring to the world knowledge that is special and distinctive. You are the only one of you that has ever existed, and the knowledge you share, the perspective you have to give is unlike any other person who has ever shared knowledge. Do you give yourself credit for this?

Do you spend any of your time trying to develop your knowledge? Do you try to learn new ways to share your knowledge force and continue to increase this knowledge energy that will help other people develop their own knowledge force and mobilize their knowledge energy to live their lives better, create social benefit and ultimately make the world a better place? This is what individual knowledge mobilization is all about.

It’s very important that we recognize and share our unique knowledge if we’re going to contribute to the world based on the knowledge we have developed in our own lives – no matter how little or how vast. Each person’s knowledge contributes. It’s how we share this knowledge that makes the difference. Knowledge can be shared for good or harm.

We are all on knowledge-development journeys. Many people spend their lives trying to share their knowledge in exactly the same ways that they see others sharing knowledge, and they’re confused, discouraged or embarrassed when others don’t understand the uniqueness of each person’s knowledge force. Others may not understand this uniqueness but we must all remember that we each need to recognize that each of us has our own ways of contributing knowledge, ways that are exclusive to us and our life experiences.

Your knowledge force flows through you every day. How do you direct it? How do you translate this knowledge energy? What is the end-purpose of sharing your knowledge? How we share our knowledge is one of the most important aspects of who we are and who we become, and it’s completely up to us in how we share our knowledge and are open to the knowledge forces of others.

Human beings fear ridule of their knowledge. We worry that others might say that we are stupid, not as knowledgeable, our understanding is limited, or our talk isn’t clear and so on. The important thing to remember is that no one is perfect, so why should we be so concerned with how we share our knowledge as long as we are sharing our knowledge for social benefit and not harm. If we can bring into our lives more openness and not be so critical of our own ability and value of sharing knowledge, then life is more fulfilling.

A person who knows how to be open with oneself and others has compassion and knowledge that leads to wisdom. When we encounter others and are open to them when they may not seem as knowledgeable but are still willing to share their knowledge we are actually showing compassion and kindness and making the world a better place.

Why should we be so concerned with how much knowledge a person has if we are all on our own personal knowledge journies to keep increasing our knowledge and the knowledge of others when we are open to mobilizing knowledge together?

As Winston Churchill said, “Personally I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” Are you like Churchill when it comes to sharing knowledge? There are plenty of people who want to share their knowledge but are truly not open to knowledge being shared by other people. There are people who want to share their experiences and interests to learn things themselves, but dislike having someone else share their perspectives. I see these problems occurring when such people are not ready or willing to learn something new and are completely close-minded and unwilling to increase their own knowledge. Knowledge sharing is not like a tug-of-war.

Knowledge mobilization is a life-long and involved learning process that always requires personal action – either active action (which most people are willing to take to share what they know) or passive action (which means being open and willing to listen to what others have to say).

It’s almost impossible to go through life without increasing our knowledge. Although it would appear there are people who somehow manage to do this. I don’t think it’s because these people aren’t increasing their knowledge. I think it’s that such people are not turning their knowledge into action to make the world a better place. I find this a sad approach to life. It keeps us closed-minded, constricted in our thinking and stuck in a worldview that is outdated and limiting in the way we do things, see things and interact with other people.

Not being open to learning new knowledge is not wanting to make the world a better place. This doesn’t mean we always have to agree with every bit of knowledge shared. But even in not agreeing, the openness of how we approach such knowledge dialogues around these differences is an act of increasing knowledge in itself by learning differing points of view. When we approach these dialogues always with the intention of good and not harm we are engaging in knowledge mobilization.

Then there are those individuals who share knowledge who are conceited, haughty, self-righteous, egotistical, arrogant and quite frankly just annoying. How do we approach these individuals with a knowledge mobilization perspective? With both active action and with passive action.

Some of my most important moments of increasing knowledge have come from knowing when to push my own views a bit further but also knowing when to just listen without engaging in something that can turn into a waste of time and energy trying to change someone else’s view. This is learning to know when knowledge sharing can turn into something that can do more harm than good. Knowledge mobilization is about incorporating both active action and passive action. If a person is not ready or willing to learn new knowledge they will not be open to both types of active and passive action. Remember, knowledge mobilization is a life-long learning process. Some people may take a little longer than others. Learning to recognize this is also part of increasing knowledge.

Some of us don’t like being taught. I know that some of the greatest sources of increasing my own knowledge have come from being open to the differing perspectives of other people. If I close myself off to these differing perspectives I close myself off to increasing knowledge and making the world a better place.

We live to seek understanding. Without sharing knowledge there is no understanding. Where do we seek knowledge in life? Knowledge is found in beliefs and experiences – both personal and shared from others. As long as we share knowledge, understanding is within our lives. All of us seek understanding – to be understood and to understand others. Openness to others and the knowledge they have to share is the source of understanding.

Our interactions with others are opportunities for understanding and knowledge. We cannot live without knowledge. Knowledge brings liberation. If we are indifferent to others we are closed to understanding and further knowledge. We are then not free in life but chained by a lack of understanding. All people value sincerity and integrity. When our knowledge sharing with others is sincere and done with integrity, there is understanding.